Jessa Davis

“Rambam, the great medieval philosopher and synthesizer of Jewish law, said that Teshuvah, this kind of moral and spiritual turning, is only complete when we find ourselves in exactly the same position we were in when we went wrong—when the state of estrangement and alienation began—and we choose to behave differently, to act in a way that is conducive to atonement and reconciliation. But this objection was raised: What happens if the circumstances in question don’t repeat themselves? How do we make complete Teshuvah then? Don’t worry, the Rambam replied. They always do. The unresolved elements of our lives—the unconscious patterns, the conflicts and problems that seem to arise no matter where we go or with whom we find ourselves—continue to pull us into the same moral and spiritual circumstances over and over again until we figure out how to resolve them. They continue to carry us into harm’s way until we become aware of them, conscious of them, and begin to change them. And we all have recurring motifs in the dark, unresolved corners of our lives—in the domestic unhappiness we replicate from one marriage to another, in the problems that seem to follow us from one job to the next, in all the mistakes that turn out to be the same mistake, which we make over and over.”
― Alan Lew, This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation

“...accepting the compromise of the way we have been, the way we are, and the way we will likely be...may we live together in unwavering love and good health, amen.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“I don't think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated

“It would be possible, in theory, for life and art to be reversed.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated